PHILADELPHIA (August 9, 2016) – A research team from the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing (Penn Nursing), the University of Michigan School of Nursing and Emory University’s Rollins School of Public Health has been awarded a $9 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to adapt and test a HIV prevention intervention for adolescent men who have sex with men. The intervention, referred to as iCON (“I Connect”), builds on an Herb Ritts Foundation initiative and seeks to address the growing disparity in new HIV cases among young men by offering life skills training and community-based HIV prevention resources through an online app.
“Our aim is to empower young gay and bisexual men to find the services they need and enable them to make positive changes in their lives,” said lead researcher José Bauermeister, PhD, MPH, Presidential Associate Professor of Nursing in the Department of Family and Community Health at Penn Nursing. “By empowering change we hope to allow young men to be able to reduce their vulnerability to HIV and to seek the care they need.”
HIV Prevention and Care Project 